DA: Man who fell down elevator shaft on Peddocks Island was drinking

Caretaker ordered off island

William Bryan III, 35, of Whitman, was killed when he fell down an elevator shaft at Peddocks Island off the coast of Hull.

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William Bryan III, 35, of Whitman, was killed when he fell down an elevator shaft at Peddocks Island off the coast of Hull.

The Whitman man who fell to his death down an elevator shaft on Peddocks Island wasn’t supposed to be there, and the state employee who invited him for a visit has been ordered off the island, state officials said.

According to The Enterprise, William E. Bryan III, 35, was with a group of friends, including the island’s caretaker, an employee of the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, and had been drinking before the fatal fall, investigators said.

The group was not authorized to be on the island, which is part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Park and is closed to the public during the winter.

Bryan and the others arrived on the island off the coast of Hull about 1 p.m. Friday, and he had been drinking alcohol before going into the historic quartermaster's building about 8:30 p.m., said Assistant Plymouth County District Attorney Bridget Middleton. That building and several others on the island are undergoing repairs and are boarded up.

Bryan jumped to an elevator platform on the third floor and then tried to jump back but fell down the shaft, suffering a fatal head injury, Middleton said.

Others in the group called 911 and tried to revive Bryan.

State police received a call at 9:35 p.m. Bryan was dead at the scene, police said in a statement released late Friday night.

S.J. Port, a spokeswoman for the Department of Conservation and Recreation, said the caretaker, whom she would not identify, has been put on unpaid administrative leave and has been ordered off the island.

She declined to say how many people were on the island on Friday and whether any other state employees were involved.

Middleton said Saturday that a preliminary investigation indicated that the death was accidental. An autopsy will be done to determine the official cause of death, she said.

Bryan posted a photo album titled “Peddocks Island” on his Facebook page in 2007. It shows him and others on the island. Another album he posted in 2007 is titled “Rangering” and shows Bryan in a Conservation and Recreation uniform.

According to his Facebook page, Bryan graduated from Stonehill College in Easton in 1999 and was a student at Ave Maria School of Law in Naples, Fla.

Peddocks Island is one of the largest islands in Boston Harbor and is managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation.